Homeschooling: A Guidebook of Practices, Claims, Issues, and Implications
In this volume, the author offers an exploratory analysis of the history of homeschooling in the United States, current curricular practices, religious and political rationales for homeschooling, a critique of the claims by homeschooling advocates that the practice leads to greater efficiency and effectiveness, and what homeschooling and individualistic-oriented approaches mean for society.
Teaching the next generation at home is, with little doubt, the oldest form of educating children. Yet, this simplistic understanding of “homeschooling” does not adequately capture the growth of homeschooling as a practice in the 21st century nor is it a widely accessible form of “school choice” for most families. While many par- ents keep their children out of formal schooling – public and private – for myriad reasons, what is clear is that homeschooling is the epitome of a conceiving of education as an individualistic good – a commodity – that can, or should, be done out- side of a conception of the common good, a reasonable understanding of teaching as a profession, and the elevation of ideological echo chambers of information which can have deleterious impacts on the students who are homeschooled and society, broadly.
Homeschooling in the United States: Examining the Rationales for Individualizing Education
This article provides an exploratory overview of the history of homeschooling in the United States in addition to examining some of the claims made by advocacy organizations. There are two broad categories of rationales for homeschooling: (1) empirical — claims of greater efficiency, effectiveness, or pedagogical appropriateness; and (2) ideological – often informed by a religious or political disposition. A detailed discussion of both rationales is provided. First examined are claims made by homeschooling advocates related to effectiveness and efficiency, finding that this rationale does not have the same validity that ideological rationales like religion and safety may have. Finally, these rationales are cast against the backdrop of the aims of education as a mechanism for the collective good or for the individual good.
Does Homeschooling "Work?" A Critique of the Empirical Claims and Agenda of Advocacy Organizations
The phenomenal growth of homeschooling in recent years demonstrates not only the appeal of this educational approach but also the notable policy acumen of the homeschooling movement's leading advocates. This analysis examines and critiques the empirical claims made by homeschooling proponents to justify further expansion and deregulation of the movement, and sheds light on the homeschool advocacy agenda explicit in those claims. Advocates often strongly suggest a causal connection between homeschooling and academic success, postsecondary attainment, and even enjoyment of life. Seemingly, these benefits are experienced all at a reduced cost per student. It is through such claims that homeschooling advocates have expanded the practice of homeschooling and have pressed for fewer state regulations and less oversight. This article outlines and challenges those claims, showing the tenuous basis for such conclusions. Instead, in an era when policymakers demand evidence of effective educational practices, we note the remarkable lack of empirical evidence on the effectiveness of this popular approach and suggest that continued efforts to claim such evidence exists indicates the desire of advocates to further advance what is largely an ideological agenda of deregulation as an end in itself.
Does Homeschooling Improve Educational Opportunities?
Homeschooling is on the rise in the early twenty-first-century United States, as parents embrace this approach and advocacy organizations promote it as part of a larger “school choice” movement. Estimates suggest that there are currently 2.3 million American students that are homeschooled compared to 50.1 million students in public schools and 4.9 million in private schools. Homeschooling rests on the foundational idea that parents, as children’s legal guardians, are the primary decision makers for their children until they become adults. Nevertheless, this understanding of parental sovereignty coexists in uneasy balance with the obligation by the wider public to ensure the general welfare and protection of all children. Policymakers and parents should thus consider the wider implications of this practice and examine the empirical evidence about the effects of homeschooling.
Does Home Education "Work?" Challenging the Assumptions Behind the Home Education Movement
Presently, there is a growing force that seeks to promote the privatisation of what has traditionally been understood best as a collective. Despite notions of what is best for the collective good, notions of privatisation and individualisation elevate the individual over the public masses. Finding roots in the economic theories of Milton Friedman, the elevation of the individual over the collective good is fostered by a removal or withdrawal from government institutions in favor of markets. In many such areas of social life, people are withdrawing from the common institutions that have defined social life in market democracies over the last century (Putnam, 1993, 2000; R.B. Reich, 1995). Of great interest is how this phenomenon and ideology specifically impacts educational practice, a cornerstone of democracy. This chapter explores how this phenomenon is manifested through homeschooling.